HE PUT BEFORE ME SOME VERY GOOD REASONS FOR HAVING AN ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR CONGREGATION SET UP IN HIS INTERESTING DIOCESE
I have had three Bishops here one after the other, and you can understand that with such guests it is not easy to have time to oneself. One of these prelates was Bishop Timon, the Bishop of Buffalo in the United States, whom I had for eight days. He put before me some very good reasons for having an establishment of our Congregation set up in his interesting diocese. It is clear that there will be plenty to do there, and moreover his diocese is not far from Montreal, and so will serve as a connecting link with our other establishments. And so I yielded to his request.
Letter to Fr. Étienne Semeria in Jaffna, 17 January 1850, EO IV n 14
Yvon Beaudoin writes: “The minutes of the General Council’s January 4,1850 meeting speak favorably of accepting an offer to have the Oblates come to Buffalo, among the factors favorable to accepting this offer were Buffalo’s unique location only 24 hours from NY equidistant to Montreal where the Oblates were already established and only 48 hours to Bytown whose Episcopal Seat was held by Bishop Guigues, o.m.i., who was also the Oblate Vicar in North America and the promise which Buffalo had for growth as a major city in the United States. The minutes mention that the Bishop was seeking three Oblates and describe the offer of a small parish and college, the revenues and land of which would be given to the Oblates. The Bishop was requesting three Oblates, The proposal received the full acceptance of the Council.”
REFLECTION
The Oblates of Texas and of Buffalo engage in friendly rivalry about which the first Oblate establishment in the USA was. Texas claims that the Oblates got there first. Buffalo says “yes. but you left soon afterwards, while we have stayed for the longest.” Both are wrong, because Oregon was the first place in the USA where the Oblates came.
On a more serious note:
“There is no ministry, however, which is foreign to us, provided we never lose sight of the Congregation’s primary purpose: to evangelize the most abandoned.” (OMI Constitutions and Rules, Rule 7b)
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Two distinct thoughts seem to rival each other this morning: not in competition with each other, but rather as eruptions of light and life exploding from within our hearts
Two Bishops in the Church feeling called to serve the most abandoned and the poorest of the poor. Was this perhaps how St. Eugene was made aware of the many Irish who fled their shores only to be cast into the same misery in England and France. Eugene, as Bishop of Marseilles made it his business to ensure that all of priests that he led in his Diocese and beyond to help these poor and starving people. I have a sense of them becoming great friends and perhaps maintaining a relationship, at least in their hearts…
The other thought that arose within me was the shared sense of mission that they both seemed to recognize in each other. It is this same sense of mission that the members of our Oblate Charismatic Family share with each other and which is shared beyond our own family to all who are children of God. The Missio Dei – that is God’s Mission, which is then the mission of the God’s Church, and Mission of our Oblate Charismatic Family.
Our call, to live Christ Jesus in apostolic community…
To live Christ Jesus crucified, among the most abandoned;
In the Church, proclaiming the Word, with daring, humility and trust
As prophets of the new world with Mary Immaculate.
God has called us to be part of this Church, where we have been planted to grow and give fruit.